/ world today news/ At a meeting of the Committee on Agriculture, MEP Momchil Nekov from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament expressed his opinion on the opinion on the Cohesion Policy in mountain regions.
Nekov, who is the rapporteur for the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament on the opinion, noted that in the beneficiary countries under the Cohesion Funds, mountainous regions cover on average about a quarter of their territory and nearly a fifth of their population. For this reason, he suggested paying special attention and having a targeted approach to these regions. “Mountain regions have common characteristics in a large part of the Union. These regions are on the periphery of active modernization processes, for example, typical of urbanized and urban regions. Nearly 50% of them are de facto border regions, which traditionally receive less attention and less opportunity to access services, other regions and markets,” said the Bulgarian MEP.
Nekov emphasized that mountainous regions are a source of livelihood, but they do not have flexibility and the possibility of reorientation, like other regions – those with a lower altitude. He recalled that they also suffer from the Russian embargo. “Very often, producers from these regions are faced with competition that produces at the same price, but the goods from the mountainous regions are made more expensive by transport costs, for example, which puts these producers at a disadvantage and puts their livelihood and employment in the region at risk ” explained the MEP. He pointed out that investments in a closed production cycle of dairy and local products, such as dairies or workshops, are an example of production that needs attention and support at the national and European level. “Investments in the infrastructure of mountain regions will also contribute to addressing some of the problems of these regions. I believe that in this regard the Cohesion Funds could play an extremely important role in addressing challenges and developing opportunities,” suggested Nekov.
The Bulgarian MEP drew attention to another problem with access to communication infrastructure, noting that one cannot talk about a Single Digital Market in the second decade of the 21st century without conditions for its successful implementation by potential beneficiaries in more remote regions such as mountainous regions. “Access to broadband internet should not be seen as a luxury, but as a right and I think that if we want to keep especially young people to stay in these regions, projects of this nature should be supported by the cohesion policy of EU,” said Nekov.
At the end of his speech, Nekov called for more efforts to promote the optional “mountain product” label, which was introduced in 2013 and whose purpose is to protect mountain products as such.
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